Regarding the Hand Held

[EvilNed]

Am I the only one who feels that the camera movements in this film were way too smooth to have been captured "in the moment" álá vérite style?

[jim102016]

Have to agree, I expected I would think about throwing up while I watched it for the first time at home a few weeks ago. The Blair Witch Project was more realistic of a hand-held camera viewpoint

[bassman]

Perhaps a bit too steady at times, but I'm glad it wasn't as shakey as others have been(Cloverfield, Blair Witch).

I much prefer the steadiness of Diary when compared to the "What the flying f*ck am I even looking at?!?" feeling that the others bring about.

[Trin]

I have to agree that the handheld camera was way too smooth to be believable.

But this is one situation where I say screw believable. The way it was filmed was a good compromise between capturing the style elements of the handheld/first person aspect and not making us hurl.

I'm not a big fan of the first person camera angle style but I thought it was well done in Diary.

[DubiousComforts]

But this is one situation where I say screw believable.
Diary was "believable" for what it's supposed to be: an edited documentary. But obviously, it's a no-win situation: if Romero had gone with the typical shaky-cam style for the sake of perceived "realism," then Diary would have been labeled contrived and too derivative of other films.

[EvilNed]

Personally, if you're gonna present a film that was spontaneously filmed on a handheld, then make it look as if it was filmed spontaneously on a handheld. It's not like I like "what the hell am I looking at!?" kind of movements, but this was TOO smooth. I didn't buy any part of it. I didn't feel as if I was there at all, as I have with all other handheld horror flicks like this, wether they were good or bad otherwise.

[Zombie Snack]

As smooth as the wife's Kitty after her bikini wax

[MinionZombie]

I like it's mix between hand-held shaky cam and slightly more film-like smoothness, it's a good go-between. Cloverfield just bugged the crap out of me after a while, and just turned into an absolute gimmick eventually, which detracts from the film.

Blair Witch did it quite well, and I think has done it the best in recent times.

If someone is willing to revisit it, I wonder how smooth or how shaky (in comparison) Cannibal Holocaust is?

Also, they're film students. They're not the random any old bugger from Cloverfield, and the average person who's rarely picked up a video camera has no idea how to hold it properly or control it even.

Now - [Rec.] - that's supposed to be a professional cameraman, yet when something scary happens, he insists on flapping the camera around so wildly, he had to have been doing it deliberately - he's also zooming in and out constantly during such sequences, so that ultimately detracts from the film and draws attention to the 'real documentary' thing they're going for.

In Diary, they're film students, so 'within' the film it makes more sense because they'll be taught to produce steady-as-can-be camera work (which eventually becomes muscle memory, so it's not even much of a conscious decision), also 'without' the film it works because it's a nice go-between, as I've previously said, so it's not just a total film look that doesn't pay any attention to the hand held intention, and nor does it flap around all over the place so we can't see anything while making people vomit all over the shop, or at least give you a headache.

I'll be watching Diary again soon when the DVD arrives, and that'll be my 3rd viewing, so I'll have a closer look at the camera work while I listen to the commentary.

But those are my thoughts anyway.

[Mutineer]

The guy holding the camera was a filmmaker.

The shaky out of control stuff is from people who don't know how to hold a camera steady

From a filmmkaers perspective ? It worked for me.

[EvilNed]

The shaky out of control stuff is from people who don't know how to hold a camera steady


When filming spontaneous stuff, there's noway in hell even the most seasoned filmmaker could keep the camera as still as that dude was. Ever see footage from professional newsteam cameras? Filmed with HEAVY, stable as crap cameras, and by professional seasoned newscrews? They're a hell of a lot more shaky than this film.

Besides, half of this film was apparently filmed with a DSR. Ever hold one of those? It's light as a feather. The camera should be flying all around.